Black Balance: How often?

[Gene Sung]

I did a shoot this past Sunday. When I reviewed the footage later, I noticed a dead white pixel in all the footage. I was kind of bummed even though it's hard to notice unless you pixel peep.

I read on-line that if you do a Black Balance, it could fix the dead pixel. So I did a Black Balance, and fortunately, the dead pixel seems to be gone. Thank God.

I have 2 questions:

1) Should I perform a Black Balance before every shoot to avoid Dead Pixels? I would hate to have another full day shoot with a dead pixel in the image.

2) How often do you guys do a Black Balance?

Interesting thing. I recorded the same shot on the 7Q and internal AVCHD. I only noticed the dead pixel on the 7Q image and not the AVCHD. I'm thinking this is because the 7Q image is so much more detailed. After the Black Balance though, the dead pixel is gone from the 7Q fortunately.

 

[Run&Gun]

A good practice to get into is BB'ing at the beginning of every shoot day. And if you happen to BB after white balancing, white balance again. It can throw your WB off.

Some manufacturers(Canon) even recommend BB after changing ISO settings. I can't say that I follow that recommendation. Plus they(Canon) make it a lot more of a pain to do than on an ENG camera.

 

[pifemaster]

Hmmmmmm... I have never adjusted the black balance on my FS700. However, after reading this post, I grabbed the manual and did some reading about how to make the adjustment. I guess I should give it a try.

Thank you,
Robert Pfeifer
www.pifemaster.com

 

[stefanhuberfilms]

1) Yes.
2) See point 1).

 

[slipstrea808]

I have seen a black balance take 2 hours as a heads up.

Unless thats just me... and my camera is being a jerk.

 

[Sorenson]

Really? Wow... When I AC'd we'd do it first thing every day when we were building the camera. If it took two hours I'd have been fired before we got the first shot off... It usually took a minute or two. Could be camera specific, but that seems crazy long.

 

[slipstrea808]

I don't know. I guess I should plug it in of course. But is just having the body cap on enough? Maybe it hangs because I don't have an actual Sony lens on.

 

[Gene Sung]

I don't know. I guess I should plug it in of course. But is just having the body cap on enough? Maybe it hangs because I don't have an actual Sony lens on.

I did it the other day with a Zeiss ZF Manual lens and it took about 3 minutes or so. Maybe a little more. So it's probably not having a Sony lens.

 

[Run&Gun]

I have seen a black balance take 2 hours as a heads up.

Unless thats just me... and my camera is being a jerk.

Holy Mother of... I've never heard of a camera taking that long. Most ENG cameras, like my 2700's, may take somewhere in the 30 second range(never timed it, maybe I will in the morning). My C300 takes what feels to be an eternity, but is probably actually somewhere between 60-120 seconds(again, never timed it, but it is a lot longer than my ENG cams).

I'd definitely contact the manufacturer if it takes two hours. Something is wrong somewhere in the chain.